Re:Ask HN: How can I use Bitcoin as currency?
by neb_b on Friday February 25, 2022 @01:59PM
(#30470823)
You are wrong about lightning. You can use a third party custodian, but it's possible to control the keys to your bitcoin locked up in lightning channels. At any point you can "withdraw" your bitcoin back to the main chain.
I think you are confusing the lightning network with liquid BTC [0], which is controlled by Blockstream.
[0] https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900001408623-...
Lightning Network is not Bitcoin. It is a separate payments platform, being pushed by a for-profit company, Blockstream. It is never non-custodial. You always require a third-party to authorize and process your transactions for you. Since it doesn't use mining / blockchain, it is vulnerable to all the centralization problems that Bitcoin was supposed to solve.